


Burrow

by Jane St Clair (3jane)



Category: Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-07
Updated: 2011-08-07
Packaged: 2017-10-22 08:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3jane/pseuds/Jane%20St%20Clair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They grew up together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burrow

1.  Buckland

Merry likes fruit for breakfast.  He likes to peel it himself, with the  
little knife he was given when he was still a very small boy-hobbit.    
Eating breakfast involves a lot of careful licking of fingertips, and  
tiny spears of apple like bright, white meat.  He eats peaches with  
dedicated concentration, only choosing the ripest ones, that he can  
open with a single slit.  Soft, wet skin shreds in his palms.

Merry likes their burrow in Brandy Hall.  They chose it when they were  
barely old enough to toddle about.  It was lined with blankets, first.    
Later they added chairs.  Now it has two beds, which are usually pushed  
together, and extra pillows.  There is a cupboard, a small fire, and a  
teapot.

Merry likes his tea with three spoons of sugar, or one large spoon of  
honey.  He likes cups, and collects them in the cupboard.  He likes to  
drink his tea in bed, with a blanket over his legs and a great many  
pillows behind his shoulders.  He likes a single lamp to be burning, or  
just the fire, if it's a bright one.

Merry likes walking about half-dressed in the morning, with his  
trousers thrown over the foot of the pushed-together beds, his yellow  
waistcoat atop them, and only his shirt on.  He builds the fire like  
that, and makes his tea, and brings it back to bed.  

Merry likes to lie on his side, with one arm pillowing his head and one  
hand steadying his teacup.  He peers over the rim of his cup and  
smiles.

2.  Buckleberry Ferry

Pippin always crosses the river with his toes in the water.  Once, the  
Tookish tendency to do mad things for no reason caused him to dive into  
the Brandywine fully clothed.  He proved to be able to swim, but not  
strong enough to fight the current.  When he was fished out, a quarter  
of a mile away, he was still laughing helplessly.  

Merry had to give up his coat, and walk for the rest of the day in his  
shirt and waistcoat.  They left Pippin's shirt flapping on a branch to  
dry, and it was days before they could find it again.  Little spiders  
had wrapped it into their webs by then.

Pippin never looked less like a responsible, grown-up hobbit than he  
did that afternoon, romping without his shirt, his coat pockets full of  
stolen apples.

3.  Willowbottom

Pippin convinces himself sometimes that he likes to sleep out of doors.    
It's a belief that seldom lasts a whole night, but it often endures  
past sunset, and it results in his lying in warm hollows with Merry,  
both of them wrapped in cloaks and blankets, making tea and boiling  
puddings over small fires.  Pippin's pockets are a surprising well of  
raisins and currants, and sometimes Merry remembers to borrow spice  
jars from the Hall kitchens.  Cloves and cinnamon, ginger when they can  
get it.

Pippin gets cold quickly.  It was his idea that they should have their  
beds together at home.  And so he comes over soon after they settle  
down, touching, carefully, looking for extra warmth.  He sleeps  
quietly, once he's found it, and curls tightly against Merry's chest.    
He stretches wide only in the warmth of their burrow.  In the cold, he  
touches fitfully, brushing his fingers into Merry's clothes, more for  
warmth than for any other reason.

Merry gathers them up before morning, usually, when he's tired and cold  
and understands that he isn't likely to sleep until he's home.  It's a  
quiet walk in the dark, with Pippin holding the tails of his coat for  
support, and later leaning against Merry's side.  They located their  
own door into the Hall years ago.  It's not as well-polished, but the  
carpet near the door is thick and warm on their feet whenever they come  
in.  Merry can build a fire and let them sleep until noon of the next  
day.

4.  The Stockbrook

Merry likes cabbages.  Pippin likes carrots.  They were told too many  
tales of small, earnest, thieving rabbits when they were small hobbit-  
boys.  It seems only natural to them.

Pippin can run very quickly, when he needs to.  No Big Person will ever  
find him, most likely.  Farmers try and fail.  Merry can never quite  
catch him, though Pippin's seldom out of his sight.  And if he falls  
and rolls down to the creekbottom, he's likely to catch Pippin halfway  
down the slope.  Grass below them, vegetables and garden earth falling  
around them.  At the bottom, they can hide in a watering can, or some  
such thing.

Or they can roll farther, catching one another and enjoying the long,  
soft grass which has yet to be harvested for hay.  The ponies on the  
far side of the brook are far too happy with the pasture they've found  
to be interested in a pair of young, foolish hobbits.  The grass is  
lovely and bright, the sort of thing one ought to compose a song about,  
or to recall a song about.  There are hobbit songs for all bright,  
clean things.

Merry lands on top at the end of their roll, so Pippin kisses him and  
rolls him down.  He stands up, covered in bright grass stains, with  
long blades of it tangled in his hair, laughing, nearly rolling with  
it.  So very easy for Merry to bear to the ground, to tickle and kiss  
and wrestle with, through the soft growth and the soft ground.

Pippin laughs whenever Merry kisses his throat.  Merry's back is very  
sensitive, fair game for any number of teases and touches.

5.  Brandy Hall

Pippin likes to eat his scones with softened honey and butter on them,  
and to lick the tips of his fingers after.  His particular rule is not  
to eat in bed, lest the crumbs interfere with his later rest and play.    
He starts every night in his own bed, but crawls across the join of  
their mattresses to wrap himself around Merry before midnight strikes.    
Long bells ringing through the Hall's tunnels.

Pippin tells quiet stories while they're wrapped in their beds.  Most  
involve food, many involve theft.  A very few extend as far away as  
Hobbiton.  A startling number involve water.  His delight in nearly  
drowning is utterly unnatural, and would likely scandalize a large  
number of his many aunts.

Merry likes to keep them both in bed until very late morning, even if  
they both wake early.  He's created his very own version of 'tag', in  
which the play space is limited to the bed and becoming tangled in the  
covers is most of the fun.  Sometimes Pippin finds an umbrella or some  
old hobbit's cane, and they can make a tent out of the bedsheets and  
live under it for a while.

Merry likes the world they create for themselves within their bedsheet  
tents.  Pippin sheds his clothes as easily there as when he swims, and  
he plays with the same joy that he plays with anywhere.  The curls of  
his hair get into his eyes when he wiggles.  He smells like warm sugar  
and young hobbit.  He kisses and wrestles and nuzzles and tells  
stories, wrapped around Merry's own naked back, for whole days at a  
time.


End file.
